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Laya Central School Faces Infrastructure Constraints For Its First Batch Of Students In 2019

The current infrastructure that caters to classes up to the eighth grade was built more than two decades ago.

Laya Central School(Source: Kuensel)

By Nima | Kuensel

Laya Central School (CS) will take in its first batch of class nine students in the academic year 2019. However, the school still does not have proper infrastructure and facilities in place.

The Laya Lower Secondary School was actually upgraded to become the central school in April last year with an objective to encourage and enable students from Laya to complete their basic education.

The current infrastructure that caters to classes up to the eighth grade was built more than two decades ago when a community primary school was established in Laya. The school was subsequently upgraded to a secondary level without any new infrastructure in 2013.

Problems concerning the infrastructure of the Laya Central School

The Principal, Khedrupla said that the infrastructure in the school were old and risky.

Source:Facebook/Laya-Central-School

“Staffs share the available compartments and we also don’t have enough classrooms,” he added.

However, he said that the school did not face much problem when it was upgraded to the secondary level.

“We need to have adequate structures to set up laboratories and libraries when we start to take class nine students in. Central schools have certain requirement of staffs and facilities,” said Khedrupla.

Laya CS will receive three more staff next year. Today, there are more than 140 students studying in Laya CS.

The school had been struggling to retain students in the school. Most students discontinue schooling during the cordyceps collection season while some stopped school after completing their secondary classes.

Upgrading of school facilities can also benefit other highland communities

Laya’s Mangmi, Tshewang said that the upgrading of Laya CS would benefit not only Laya gewog but also the nearby highland communities of Lunana and Lingzhi.

“The children of Laya used to move far from the community to study until this year. This was inconvenient and they fell sick while adapting to the lower altitude weather situations,” he said.

Source: Kuensel

“With the upgrading of school facilities, they will not face these inconveniences now. We hope this would help students to continue their studies.”

However, inadequate infrastructure and the absence of proper facilities are the concerns for both the school and gewog administration. This is urgent as they only have a few months left before they begin the new academic session.

The school staff and locals said that it was also challenging to rent an apartment in the remote community because the residents of Laya live away from home most of the time in the year.

Until the reconstruction of the school begins in the new fiscal year, the gewog and school administration plan to use some vacant quarters in the gewog centre. The school also plans to build temporary classrooms for the time being.

Sonam Chophel, a Laya resident said that it was worrying to see students perform.

“Teachers coming here to work would face difficulty in adapting to the circumstances of the place. This might result in some unhealthy compromise.”